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Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children

By TChris, Section Juvenile Offenders
Posted on Sat May 14, 2005 at 02:14:06 PM EST
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by TChris

A 13-year-old boy died at a state-operated outdoor therapeutic program for troubled children in Georgia after struggling with camp counselors who withheld his dinner. Travis Parker was held down, often face down, for about an hour and a half. Travis was asthmatic. He asked for his inhaler repeatedly, but the counselors refused to give it to him.

The restraint, which involved at least three counselors at a time, ended when the boy stopped breathing and went limp, the reports said. He was hospitalized and died the next day.

The state fired five camp employees and a sixth resigned. Travis' family is demanding a full explanation of the facts surrounding his death. Whether criminal charges will be pursued against any of the counselors will be decided after the state completes its investigation.

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    Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children | 12 comments (12 topical)
    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#1)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:03 PM EST
    Sounds like a wrongful death suit for starters. Wonder why the state isn't talking about manslaughter?

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:03 PM EST
    No mens rea - the state of mind to commit a crime. This is a civil matter and something the parents will have to live with. As a parent who has had a child die, I have some inkling what lies ahead for the parents. Under the best of circumstances, losing a child is devastating.

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#3)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:03 PM EST
    So we have death camps and cover-up big time on that state child murder, but it is right in line with bush's ideals of how to deal with troubled children, so you can kill a kid and all you got to do is get fired or resign and all is ok, "yes the land of freedom and murder". after all no one will take responsibly and in this little land of freedom that is about normal. "Hey people a kid was killed."

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#4)
    by Dadler on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:03 PM EST
    Isn't it illegal, as the guardian of this child, to refuse him his medication in the form of that inhaler? How could that be legal?

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:04 PM EST
    It may be and probably is negligence to fail to provide the medicine when the child was asking for it, but since the staff were engaging some stupid idea of "tough love" there is intention to do harm, no mens rea which is a critical element in most crimes. It all fits with our get tough ideas in this country. If you have to kill the Iraqis to bring them democracy, so be it. If you have to kill kids to get them straightened out, oh, well. Too many of the citizens of this fair land have seen too many Schwarzenneger movies. It's a culture of violence and coercion. Values, I think they call it. God help these parents, they will feel a great deal of guilt for having subjected their child to torture and death. And any of you who don't think the kid didn't experience torture probably have little experience with asthma. It is a childhood killer of some power.

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#6)
    by jackl2400 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:04 PM EST
    CA, I don't agree that the authorities couldn't find "mens rea" (required criminal intent) if they wanted to shut these camps down and arrest their owners.

    People are arrested all the time for harming others even though they didn't specifically intend to do so (providing or sharing illicit drugs w/ someone who overdoses is a good example...the pending H.R. 1528 criminalizes dealing drugs around a school zone or college with up to life imprisonment...and this doesn't require the actual intent to deal to a child or even involvement of a child).

    No, this is something more insidious: the link between evangelical wingers and "moralists" like Dr. James Dobson and "tough love" youth "rehabilitation" centers and alternative schools. The wingers are big believers in physical punishment, starting with spanking...George Lakoff characterizes the major difference between left and right as ultimately centering around childrearing and parenting worldviews: "strict father" (patriarchial, religious, right, authoritarian, Republican) and "nurturant parent(s)" (the opposite, Democrats). Fact is, these abusive programs have been around since the '70s and often you will find very powerful people behind them and related issues. Biggest case in point: Fort Lauderdale shopping center magnate Mel and Betty Sembler who founded an abusive youth treatment center (STRAIGHT, Inc.) in the '70s which was shut down. Sembler's now an ambassador and big Republican fundraiser and muckymuck and the lobby group he funds (Drug Free America Foundation) is very much behind most of the harsh criminal drug laws passed over the past 30 years...including the latest incarnation of H.R. 1528, the fed's intractable war on medical marijuana and so forth.

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:04 PM EST
    I am not saying that I like the fact that the camp staff can't be prosecuted, I am saying that the prosecution just won't fly. There are statutory instances where a person can be prosecuted without any need to determine criminal intent - crimes of strict liability like statutory rape - and there are crimes like felony murder where no murder can be charged without the prosecutor needing to show that there was any intention to kill another person. I guess a prosecutor could try manslaughter or negligent homicide or something, or a federal crime of deprivation of civil liberties, but the scenario of scaring people straight in a pseudo-military camp is very different from an inadvertent death related to drug trafficking. One of the difficulties with bring the prosecution case in this instance is that the "living victims" - the parents do not have clean hands since they sent the child to the camp. It's just not the kind of case that a prosecutor is likely to pick up in my opinion. Stupidity is still not generally criminal.

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#8)
    by nolo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:04 PM EST
    conscious angel-- I'm no expert in criminal law, but I know that sufficiently egregious negligence can serve as a surrogate for express intent when it comes to criminal prosecutions. Terms of art like "reckless," "willful," or "wanton" are used to describe the degrees of negligence that can lead to criminal penalties.

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:04 PM EST
    This story is a true tragedy. It is too bad some want to blame it on James Dobson or even George Bush. “Tough Love” has nothing to do with violence or withholding the necessities of life, including medical inhalers. It simply means setting firm boundaries and sticking to them. The “tough” refers to the difficulty a parent or spouse has in actually implementing the plan. An example: a wife says to her husband, “You cheat on me again, and I’m leaving you, forever.” If the husband cheats and the wife leaves, that’s tough love. If the wife says, “You cheat on me again, and I’ll kill you.” and then does, that’s not tough love. That’s a crime. Here is James Dobson’s answer to a question about how to handle a violent teen. Notice that even then, he doesn't respond with force. And here is a summary of how to raise a strong-willed child. This seems rather obvious to me, but if the phrase “tough love” has been corrupted by others, that isn’t Dobson’s fault. CA had it right when he called it, “some stupid idea of ‘tough love’." CA, sorry for your loss.

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:04 PM EST
    Thank you and blessings to you, Soldier. I will stipulate to the possibility of charging negligent homicide, manslaughter 2nd, or some such felony which requires less mens rea than would be required to successfully prosecute a crime like kidnapping, theft, murder, etc. But it is not likely to happen. The forces that believe in coercion, force, stand together. Anybody remember the last time a prosecutor was indicted for obstruction of justice for failing to disclose exculpatory evidence? Mens rea would be easier to prove and it still doesn't happen. Kind of like the case of sexually exploiting your informants, the prosecution and law enforcement professions are not held to a very high ethical standard. This one is like a frat hazing. Some time things just get out of hand.

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#12)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:04 PM EST
    Oh yes, dobson is a great example. Asked how long you should let a child cry after punishment he says"Real crying usually lasts two minutes or less but may continue for five. After that point, the child is merely complaining, and the change can be recognized in the tone and intensity of his voice. I would require him to stop the protest crying, usually by offering him a little more of whatever caused the original tears." IOW, I'll give you something to cry about! and how about this quote:"When a youngster tries this kind of stiff-necked rebellion, you had better take it out of him, and pain is a marvelous purifier." and "When a child has lowered his head and clenched his fist, he is daring the parent to take him on." dobson is a homophobic child abuser. this case should result in felony murder charges.

    Re: Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children (none / 0) (#13)
    by Jlvngstn on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:05 PM EST
    Soldier, you mean to tell me that a wife who says "you cheat on me AGAIN and I will leave you" is considered tough love? LOL, too much Jimmy Swaggart in that one for me.

    Boy Dies at Georgia Camp for Troubled Children | 12 comments (12 topical)